Should Military Service be mandatory for all?

We were in a long standing cold with with the former Soviet Union. Back in the fifties and sixties we were developing bomb shelters all across the nation in fear of a potential Soviet attack. You do know what a war is and what it entails--be it a cold or hot war, don't you? So I see you're taking the wussy side of our loser enemy in this case; to be expected I guess from another leftist apologist to our military missions and their winning results thereof. Our enemy Gorby was weak and our greatest president and leader (Reagan) pounced on him with a relentless force that even a leftist would be in awe of.

 

Q. Should military service be mandatory for all?

A. No.

 

It is for preventing another 9/11.

The debate is if we need a draft. You brought up the prospect of a future 9/11 attack as justification for it. Any future 9/11 attack can be thwarted with airport security, like the first one should have been, ergo "9/11" is no reason we need a draft.

Otherwise, you've used it as a trite talking point like many politicians in the past for over a decade. Like in today's world, post 9/11, we realize that terrorists are a danger, blah blah blah.

No they aren't.. Unless they get their hands on a nuke, they're not any more a threat. In fact now, thanks to the granny-groping TSA, they are less of a threat post 9/11.

If you bring up 9/11 as an argument for a draft I will address it on a practical level.

Not enough that we need a draft to stop the rest, apparently.

Otherwise, what, a few more people die? How many innocent people do the Black and Latino street gangs kill? MANY MANY MANY times more than the Arab terrorists can. So how come you aren't citing them as the reason we need a draft? Or are they not the ones who will take over the whole country.

I'm not scared of the terrorists. That's what they want. I think you give them too much credit. And no need for your personal attacks.

 

Thst doesn't say anything about maintaining a standing army. Try again

 

Mandatory service would have one good effect for sure. All the liberal cowards would run to Canada again just like during Nam. This time we would need to make sure a fool like Carter doesnt let them back in.

 

Think a bit harder....
It's those same "fat gorged idiots" as you call them, who will end up in Washington "draining our economy by eating up hardworking tax dollars".
So why not send them to boot camp and get some sense knocked into them first?

 

Thank you for reply.

I believe inductees were screened first and each given a classification number.
Those unable to serve were classified 4F.

"4-F Registrant not acceptable for military service. To be eligible for Class 4-F, a registrant must have been found not qualified for service in the Armed Forces by a Military Entrance Processing Station (MEPS) under the established physical, mental, or moral standards. The standards of physical fitness that would be used in a future draft would come from AR 40-501.[55]"

 

Under the 4-F classification, some people will deliberately do poorly on the MEPS exam in order to avoid being drafted. I even had a friend who told me that he got out of being drafted (back when they had the real draft) by telling the examiner that he was gay. He wasn't really gay but he was exempted from duty.

 

Lol

Are you sure that FDR's war was as unnecessary as your buddy Bush's was?
I can't honestly say that I am against war at all costs,
but was Iraq really necessary? At all? Even close?

Would have been much more economical to just find Bin Ladin don't you agree?

 

Lol
this time they might not want to come back.

 

In the infantry MOSs, we only had a 50% chance of finishing our whole tour alive. Ninety-five percent of the GIs in Vietnam were actually safer than they had been as civilians. The same with the Chickenhawk-designated "Greatest Generation," most of whom were unpatriotic cowards, as proven by the fact that they let the richkids and athletes dodge their duty when their own sons were getting sacrificed in Vietnam.

Though I was shot at over 50 times, I never had a clear shot at the enemy. I felt like a punching bag. The whole purpose of that war's restrictions was to take the fight out of the bravest of the working class so they wouldn't fight back against the pampered economic elite when they got back home.

 

Yes, you can be a Romney Rambo and put yourself in harm's way campaigning for your Daddy. I knew I didn't have the guts to do that back in 1966, so I volunteered for the Marines hoping I'd come back from Vietnam man enough to face the dangers of slapping on bumper stickers.

 

Chickendoves weren't really against the war, though they tried to justify their cowardice through a pose of warm and fuzzy moral superiority. Besides being cowards afraid to grow up, they were also against it because they thought they were their generation's elite. These gutless snobs felt that inferior working-class people should risk their worthless lives taking the elite's place. The only honest draftdodgers were those who thought the war was unnecessary and unwinnable. But the media-enhanced protesters all had vicious and unmanly reasons to screech in public.

Look at Clinton, whose Mommy earned as much money as richgirl Hillary's Daddy. Because of unnecessarily putting working-class troops in harm's way in Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, and Kosovo, he's obiously pro-war as long as he and his spoiled clique don't have to fight.

 

"Are you sure that FDR's war was as unnecessary..."

Taxcutter says:
Absolutely. FDR did not need to meddle in China or cut off Japan's oil.

 

Yeah good luck with that. Is their an actual point that you would like to make?

 

Ok, I'm old enough to have been there during the height of Vietnam. I think the all volunteer military was a mistake then and a mistake now. I'm just not sure you can unscramble the egg.

I was pretty anti-war by the time I got out. That does not mean I regret the service. I went to college on the GI Bill and grew up while in the service. I learned more in two years about the real world than any of my friends that sat it out and it didn't hurt to graduate a couple of years late. In my day, I got the princely sum of $89 a month, which was enough for a weekend pass if you could take one. Otherwise it was a poker game the first two days and Bid Whist the rest of the month.

If you just couldn't bring yourself to fight you could always opt for the Medics, (lost a very good friend that way), or the Peace Corps. While a few hundred made headlines running from the draft, the vast majority accepted the fate and made the best of it. It was the common experience for all Americans. Sure there were some that bought their way out, just like the elite buy themselves out of all sorts of real world worries today. You didn't feel like you were special or brave, just a normal adult which when you stop and think about it, is something special today.

You also didn't have the massive problems of continuous redeployment. There were enough troops in the pipeline to limit your exposure in a contained conflict like Nam. If you chose to stay in for a career, it was on you and there was a realistic promotion path.

Sure it had its problems, but on the whole it was a better system. Everybody paid and played. We were a better country for it.

 

Last time I checked, you can't force people to take a job they don't want. The Military is a government organization, and last time I checked, people who worked for the government did so because they wanted to. And they weren't your average Joe - they were well qualified for a job that affects the whole country.

Military is no different - if you want a good military, you need it full of people who are patriotic, skilled warriors who are willing to die to protect their country. Your average Joe will not suffice.

 

Funny you should say this, but everyone, male and female have to do two weeks of part time military training in Laos, starting from the age of 18.

Unversity and college students are targeted first. Don't do the training, don't get the degree.

 

We need a professional volunteer army. Not everyone has the guts to serve, no one should be stuck in a hole next to someone that feels that way. You wouldn't want to be stuck next to me in a fox hole, that is for sure. My friend Billy? You can feel safe with that Gunny walking through Dante's inferno. Our professional military would trounce any drafted army. I realize some draftees can get up to speed, but not all, and there will be casualties and low morale among those fighting forces that have to rely on them to guard their back. Every dollar spent on soldiers who have no will to fight is a dollar wasted that could go to supporting those men and women who get the job done.

 

Ok, it says well regulated militia, but being forced to join the military so you can own a firearm still violates your 2nd amendment right. Stop trying to purposely distort the constitution.

 

For an answer to...'should military service be mandatory for all'?......I say not for all, but for men ages 18-22 who can pass a physical exam. Mandatory service for these men would solve many social problems as well as keep our military troop count at a ready and effective level in case of deployment into a war setting.

Conscripting these young men would ensure that they don't join forces with our domestic enemies on the left who would certainly indoctrinate them into having a Marxist and an anti-war/anti-military mindset. These young men would learn to salute the American flag, honor our nation and respect their roles as our leading symbols to the world in representing freedom and liberty for all. Its hard to tell you just how much self respect, character building and determination to succeed in life these men will acquire from their stints in the military, unless you have served yourself.

 

Neo-cons don't want a draft.

As long as wars can be kept "hidden"....i.e. most Americans have no fear of THEIR kids going to fight one.....and the wars are kept "off the books"...i.e. no taxes are raised to pay for the war, just more debt...

it's easier for the Hawk Right to "sell" the public on the idea of a war.


If there was a draft, without the same kind of deferments that Dick Cheney and Rush Limbaugh got.....or "champagne squadrons" back home in the States for guys like Dubya to score a slot in......and everybody, including Rightwingers, had a chance for getting a Gold Star on their window.....

the Right would need actual cause and an actual threat to national security to start a war....unlike now or in the 2000s.

 

Enslaving men aged 18-22 would do nothing but teach millions of men and their families about the evils of war and the U.S. military.

 

Strange, I never though of my conscription into the Army was anything but a maturing-manly-character building-self respecting-self responsible-confidence building-world traveling learning experience that made me appreciate my country, my family and my success in life all that much more. My small combat role was the least I could do to live up to JFK's words..."Ask not what your country can do for you....ask what you can do for your country" Tell us what you've done for America from the bowels of N.Y.

 

If you're an example of what military conscription does to a man, I think you serve as much of a warning as anything else of how military enslavement destroys the ability to think freely and to speak coherent English, producing a mindless animal.